Monday, October 28, 2013

[NEWS]: CONRAD MURRAY COMPLETES JAIL TIME FOR KILLING MICHAEL JACKSON

Dr. Conrad Murray left the Los Angeles County jail under sheriff's escort, avoiding reporters and Michael Jackson fans waiting for his release early Monday.

Murray, who served two years of a four-year sentence for causing Michael Jackson's death, was driven away in a sheriff's car for the "safety and security" of the jail, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

The handful of Jackson fans gathered outside the jail accused the Los Angeles County sheriff of showing favoritism to Murray by slipping him out of the jail through a back exit, instead of the door where freed prisoners normally leave.

Murray, who the sheriff's spokesman described as an exemplary inmate, was kept away from the general inmate population during his two years in the jail. He was also allowed to have liberal use of a telephone inside his cell during his last year.

Murray's lawyer told reporters outside the jail that he would try to get his medical licenses reinstated in California, Texas and Nevada so he can resume the medical career interrupted by his conviction on the involuntary manslaughter in 2011.

A jury concluded after a two-month trial that Murray's negligence led to Jackson's death from an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol.

Deputy District Attorney David Walgren, arguing for the maximum four years in jail, said Murray was "playing Russian roulette with Michael Jackson's life every single night," by using propofol to put him to sleep in "a reckless, obscene manner."

Murray's lawyers unsuccessfully argued that Jackson self-administered the drug while Murray was out of his bedroom.

He remained unremorseful during his two years in jail.

"My entire approach may not have been an orthodox approach, but my intentions were good," Murray told CNN's Anderson Cooper interview last April.

He said his intentions were to wean Jackson from propofol. He said he succeeded in eliminating propofol from his insomnia treatment three days before Jackson's death.

Pastor, in a 30-minute speech explaining his sentence, cited Murray's "pattern of deceit and lies. That pattern was to assist Dr. Murray."

Jackson died "not because of an isolated one-off occurrence or incident," Pastor said. "He died because of a totality of circumstances which are directly attributable to Dr. Murray ... because of a series of decisions that Dr. Murray made."

Murray, he said, became involved in "a cycle of horrible medicine."

Jackson family members and fans have complained that Murray should have been prosecuted for second degree murder -- not manslaughter.